Thursday, September 10, 2015

In Times of Disappointments



"Disappointments are times in our life when we could reflect upon our true purpose and to know more of God's true plan for us. It is also a time when we need to trust Him even more."

Before you continue, please take time to read Luke 24:13-35.

Disappointments. Yes, we all have been there before, or maybe we’re experiencing it right now; that aching feeling of dissatisfaction when our hopes, desires and expectations fail to come to pass[1].

When our prayers aren’t answered fast enough; or when our prayers are given an unexpected answer; or when we’ve set goals and made plans but it didn’t went the way you wanted them to be; or when a business idea that didn’t work out; or when certain things in our life are out of our control. If we’ve been through these things and more, then we can be candidates for disappointment.

Jesus’ disciples also had their share of disappointments, especially after Jesus’ crucifixion, death and resurrection. Most of them must have been very disappointed that Jesus was not the Christ they were expecting Him to be; a political Messiah who will deliver Israel from the hands of the Roman Empire. We could see this in the case of two disciples, Cleopas and his unnamed companion. Though these two weren’t part of the original 12, but just the same, they were followers of Jesus. And like most of them they had high hopes for this man. Until their world came crashing down when their only hope was crucified, died, buried, had risen from the grave on the third day and was nowhere to be found. With their hearts and hopes crushed they went out of Jerusalem and took the seven mile trek to Emmaus.

Along the way, as the two disciples were conversing, a stranger came to them and asked what they were talking about. They confided to the stranger (who was actually Jesus in His glorified form) about what had happened in Jerusalem. And from the tones of their conversation we could see that they were downcast, disheartened and most have envied the other women disciples who first found out that Jesus was alive. These are tall tale signs that they were disappointed.

Like I said all of us go through disappointments at one time or another. And if not handle carefully it can lead to depression, discouragement (when we feel like giving-up), burn-out, anger and even envy (feeling a sense of unfairness or injustice when we see others succeed).

The best way to overcome these dreadful conditions is to change our mindset and ask the Lord to help us see through the dark veil of disappointment.

And to help us with this, here are five things we should remember when we feel disappointed.

Remember that God is always with us.

When we get too caught up with our disappointments we tend to focus on it too much that we sometimes feel a sense of abandonment. Sometimes we ask ourselves “where is God in this situation of our life?” But the truth is God has been, and always will be, by our side. Just like the two disciples. While they were wallowing over how disappointed they were, they weren’t aware that Jesus was with them.

God absolutely knows what we’re going through. He’s always with us, whether we are aware of His presence or not. He has promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Joshua 1:5b). And He is in control of our situation as long as we let Him take over.

In our time of disappointment, let us draw near to God and find in His presence the strength and comfort that we need to endure and persevere. He is closer than we think.


Remember God’s promises and His word.

After the two disciples told the stranger of what had happened in Jerusalem, the stranger rebuked them by saying how slow in heart they were that they didn’t realize the real purpose why Christ had to suffer. So He reminded them of Moses and all the Prophets and explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning the Christ.

When we’re disappointed, it’s also important to go back and review God’s promises and His word because of two reasons:


  •  To renew our hope. (Romans 4:18-21)
Just like Abraham, he hoped against all hope that God’s promise to him will come to pass, that he will become the father of many nations. Even if the hope was very slim (because he and his wife Sarah are both very old), he still held on to the promise. With much faith and obedience from Abraham, God’s promise came to pass in the form of Isaac. And from Isaac came a nation from the linage of Abraham, a nation belonging to God. In which we are now a part of because we belong to Christ (Galatians 3:29). The Lord had proven that He is faithful in fulfilling His promise as long as we believe and obey.


  •   To remind us of the real purpose behind God’s promises.
Sometimes we get too sidetracked and too excited for the fulfillment God’s promises that our intentions, expectations and interpretation to the promises are not aligned with God’s absolute plan and purpose. In the case of the two disciples, they had the wrong interpretation of God’s promise. They thought that the coming Messiah was a political one, the savior of Israel who will deliver them from the Roman Empire. But God’s plan was more than that. He sent His only Son, the Christ, to be the Savior of the world. If the two disciples had realized this earlier they could have saved themselves from a lot of disappointment.

There is a purpose to every promise that God makes. God didn’t make a promise Abraham just to make him rich and famous. He had a great purpose for that, and that is to make a nation who will call Him their God.

So let us be careful in interpreting God’s promises. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us understand the real purpose behind the promise.

Remember what God did for you in the past. (Psalm 77:11-12)

When they reached Emmaus the two disciples invited the stranger to stay with them for the night. While they were having supper the stranger took some bread and broke it. And when the two disciples saw this simple act, an act that they have witnessed many times before (feeding of the five thousand and the last supper), their eyes were opened and they remembered. It made them realized that the stranger was in fact Jesus.

When we remember what God did for us in the past it gives us an assurance that if God has shown His goodness and faithfulness to us before, He will surely show His goodness and faithfulness to us today and in the future. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrew 13:8).

It can help if we could make a journal of all our answered prayers and fulfilled promises, so that when we go through disappointments we can look back and remember at what the Lord had done for us.

Remember where you started. (Galatians 6:9)

When we get disappointed we can have a tendency to give up. Sometimes we would feel like it’s all a fruitless effort. We might as well pack our bags and go back to where we came from. In the case of the two disciples, that could have been the reason why they left Jerusalem. Their Rabbi was gone and missing, it seems meaningless to continue being with the other disciples, why should they stay in Jerusalem? But after their encounter with Jesus in Emmaus they had to go back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples that Jesus is truly alive!

Remembering where we started will help us realize and remember the reason for why we started in the first place. It will inspire us to persevere and continue what we are called to do.

We may have different reasons, but all in all, the beginning and the end of what we are doing points to one reason, and that’s none other than our love for God. He should be the primary reason for everything we do. (Colossians 3:17)

Remember to be thankful. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Being thankful, in spite of our disappointments, is acknowledging that God is in control of every situation of our life, whatever good or bad it may be. We can grow from these experiences and we could learn to trust and depend on Him in everything (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Disappointments are times in our life when we could reflect upon our true purpose and to know more of God's true plan for us. It is also a time when we need to trust Him even more. It is when we need to take heart and press on, because despite of all our failures, despite being overwhelmed by a troubled world, Jesus had overcome for us. (John 16:33) And for that reason, we can see clearly that He can never disappoint us.



[1] http://www.gotquestions.org/disappointment-with-God.html

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